How to interpret a prophecy
by MeinNameIstHase
Summary: In the summer after Harry's disastrous fifth year a small miracle happened and Harry actually got some thinking done. This lead him to make a decision with consequences, which quickly snowballed into great changes for the wizarding world. Includes badass!Trelawney.
1. Prologue: From another point of view

I disclaim the ownership on each and any part of the Harry Potter world. Hardly anything in this story is mine.

* * *

A/N: I changed the form of address for Trelawney due to the review by Very Small Prophet. Thanks again.

* * *

"The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post." (Dumbledore, OotP, chapter 27)

* * *

_1980, room in the Hog's Head, Hogsmeade_

Only two people occupied the room, sitting opposite at a table, drinking tea. One was an old man. He looked dignified despite his bright and colourful clothes and his wild grey mane. He was a headmaster of a prestigious school and had some other important titles for other days. The other was a woman, who at that time worked as a fortune teller. However she planned for this meeting to change that.

The old man spoke: "Miss Trelawney, let's discuss your application for the divination position. What are your qualifications?"

"I have this letter of recommendation." Trelawney slid an obviously old parchment to the old man (he was even older than the parchment).

He took it carefully and read it aloud.

"My great-great-granddaughter will be a Master of Divination. Sincerely, Cassandra Trelawney, November 12th, 1904"

The headmaster leveled his look at the woman, who wore the clothing which was typical for her profession.

"Miss Trelawney, I fear, I cannot simple accept this letter. You're not the only great-great-granddaughter of Cassandra, after all. I'm sure, you could proof your mastery of the subject to me?"

These words of the man seemed to anger the woman.

"Proof? Headmaster Dumbledore, one doesn't simple proof one's mastery over the art of divination! One accepts the word of a seer about who is and who isn't a master. To do otherwise, would be too dangerous by far!"

Dumbledore seemed unfazed.

"Nevertheless I need some proof of your competence to hire you. Maybe you could make a prophecy? It may be about something small. Just so I know, that you possess the inner eye."

Trelawney answered in a horse whisper after taking a deep breath to regain her bearing.

"Do you even know, what you ask for? What state is the magical world in, that one of its acclaimed leaders doesn't know that to ask for a prophecy should be a great decision after some heavy thought and not part of a simple interview? I can however predict your future by having a look at your tealeaves."

This speech, too, didn't impress the headmaster. But he emptied his teacup and gave it to the seer. Trelawney took one short look at it and then proclaimed.

"The ant and the lemon. You'll soon insult somebody mostly insignificant, but the consequences for you will be terrible."

Trelawney looked at Dumbledore expectantly, who frowned. Neither figure was mentioned with these meanings in the charts of the standard divination textbook, which he had read just this morning. He had no talent for Divination, but he had an excellent memory. The ant stood for diligent work and the lemon for an unlucky day. He tried to keep his voice gentle.

"I don't think, that this post is suited for you, Miss Trelawney. It requires hard and dedicated work and I can only hire the best. I'm sorry to say, that you don't quite meet the Hogwarts teaching standard."

Trelawney was by now fed up by this wizard, who clearly believed, that he knew something about divination, but obviously didn't. Fine then, he would be brought down. And soon, nobody, who didn't even now the basics about the magical arts, would be thought to be a great wizard ever again. She concentrated on those thoughts.

The headmaster stood up and went to the door.

"Goodbye, Miss Trelawney. It was a pleasure meeting you"

Sybill Trelawney made her prophecy.

* * *

A/N: The meanings of the symbols are made up by me. Predicting the future is a magical art and even the best charts can't contain all possible interpretations.


	2. Chapter 1

_Autumn 1996, dungeon, Hogwarts_

The halls were still in the evening. A very plain door was leading to the professor's office, but the prospect of knocking on it was daunting. Nevertheless he'd come this far for what he thought were good reasons, he wouldn't turn back now. Slowly he went to the door, slowly he raised his hand and then he knocked startingly firm.

When he was called in, he immediately started on his rehearsed speech, before Snape could throw him off with a sarcastic comment.

"Sir, I've thought a lot in the last months and I've come to conclusions, I'd like to discuss with you. Therefore I request an hour of your time."

Snape sneered at him.

"So you believe yourself capable of something, which might be actually be labeled as thinking, Potter."

But the insult was expected and Harry had no problem to follow the plan, which was to stay silent and to not agitate the professor further. Funny, that he was thinking of Snape as an professor now when he approached him about a non-school-related topic. Probably because professor was the only title he kind of respected.

Finally Snape gave in.

"Out with it. But you will be thrown out, if you waste my time, Potter."

"Yes sir. I actually want to talk about several topics, but I think, I should start with divination. The thing to understand about divination is, that it is a totally passive art. A Seer can't change what he has seen, neither directly nor indirectly. The only exception to this rule are prophecies. Prophecies have a subtle active magic. They are the revenge of the Seers on the mighty, who exploit them. They make all those, who heard a prophecy, act as necessary to see the prophecy fulfilled. The influence is greater, if one has heard a prophecy, but it also carries to those, who were only affected by a decision, which was made under the influence of the prophesy.

"By now the prophecy about Voldemort has probably taken hold of the whole of magical Britain. Dumbledore and Voldemort seem to be thinking about little else. I actually believe, that Voldemort lost his ability to resist the prophecy when he lost his body."

Against his expectations about the topic, Snape was fascinated but of course didn't show it.

Harry continued.

"The headmaster actually told me the prophecy before the holidays. Here goes:

_'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...'_

"What I think, this means, is, that we both must kill each other, so that one of us can somehow survive dieing, and then the survivor has actually a change at a normal life.

"I'm not that worried about that, though. Dumbledore obviously has a plan, how to bring this final battle about. And till then the prophecy will make sure, that neither of us dies. No, it would be a fruitless endeavour for me to research, what Dumbledore already knows and will someday tell me. I just need to prepare myself as best I can. I'm actually more worried about another problem of the wizarding world, of which in a way Voldemort is just a symptom."

Harry had long thought about how to present his concerns to Snape and had come to the conclusion that the best way to do it would be to say his main points as short and fast as possible. The discussion had to wait till Snape was convinced that it wouldn't be a waste of time. And so Harry plowed on.

"One problem is the believe that great magical strength and knowledge make a good leader. I know, that these abilities are not coupled with the capability of logical thought and whatever mental abilities a good leader needs. As the Dark Lord's Equal I should be magically powerful, but I'm yet too young to make a good leader.

"Another problem is prejudice. Prejudice against muggleborns, prejudice against Slytherins, prejudice against creatures, against dark arts, against Hufflepuffs, against purebloods, against everybody. Dumbledore doesn't really do anything against these, he's only less prejudiced than most.

"I believe, that you are capable to discern, what needs to be done, also you have already experience and contacts. In short, I propose some kind of alliance between us, I don't know on what terms, to tackle these problems. You can help me plan, how to use the fame I'll have from defeating Voldemort against these prejudices. There's too much mistrust in the magical world."

Now that Harry had reached the end of his speech – against his expectations – he fell silent and watched Snape. Snape took his time thinking about what he heard. Harry took that as a good sign. When Snape finally spoke, he sounded civil.

"An interesting tale, Mr Potter. Tell me, where did you find your information about prophecies. They are not part of the Hogwarts curriculum."

Harry snorted.

"Of course not, they would be too dangerous for class. I found a book in the library 'Magical arts: Roses with many thorns'. It warned about the dangers in many different magical fields including divination. It also had the background information."

Snape would have to read a copy later. For now other information was more important. He had hatched the beginnings of a plan. But first he had to be sure that it was workable.

"How sure are you about your interpretation of the prophecy? How did you come by it?"

Harry shrugged.

"There are always more than one interpretation to a prophecy. This one just feels right. Probably because we seem to be locked in this constant battle with each other, neither killing the other against all odds."

And for some strange reason Snape understood. The interpretation just seemed right. And that meant, he had a brilliant plan. Now he had just to convince Potter to try it.

"You should consider an alternative to your course of action. Instead of killing the Dark Lord immediately and then trying to use your dwindling fame, which will soon be more of an annoyance than it will be useful, you should choose to not attack him yet. You could become a powerful leader of the light, the Dark Lord's equal. From that position, you'll have great influence on the magical world. You could make all the necessary reforms."

Harry gaped. He stared at Snape as if he were insane. Then he sputtered.

"But he is insane. He is a violent murderer. I cannot allow him to life and let him kill all these people. My influence will be worth nothing, if everybody is dead, or hiding, or running away, or fighting for their lifes."

"The Dark Lord can see reason. He is fighting for the wizarding world. As soon as he realizes that he isn't accomplishing much, he'll seek alternatives. We just have to make him loose his focus on you."

"I can't work with him!" Harry cried indignantly.

"Of course not. You will be opponents."

Suddenly Snapes gaze focused on Harry.

„You came to me because you thought power such as yours should be guided by someone more intelligent than you. You asked for advice and I've given it. I told you your best option for achieving your goals, but you won't even consider it. If that is how you envision an allegiance between us to work then there is no point to further pursue it."

Harry dropped his eyes.

„I must be a Gryffindor to think that we can actually work jointly together." He mumbled. Then he looked at Snape with resolve in his eyes.

„Very well. I see your point. I'll help you with this plan as best I can. I reserve to use Dumbledore's plan only when this doesn't work out."

„Good," said Snape satisfied „I'll have to further think on this. Is there anything else?" Snape asked with what sounded like sincere politeness.

„No, I don't think so." said Harry after a moments thought.

„Then you shall return to your dormitory now." was Snape's curt goodbye.

* * *

Snape heavily sat down. This development was most unexpected. He had had a civil conversation with the Potter brat. He had formed an alliance with the Potter brat. He had convinced the Potter brat to follow his insane plan. It took no effort to do so. Thinking over the conversation he could nearly pinpoint the influence of the prophecy, now that he was aware that it existed. It was quite apparent, that the prophecy influenced his actions quite strongly. He doubted that he could fight it, since he hadn't been aware of it when Potter had been here and the decisions had been made. Taking this into consideration, he was obviously doomed to make the alliance work. Snape suppressed a shudder. But why would the prophecy approve of his effort to prolong the battle? Nothing in the wording suggested this insanity. He definitely had to research prophecies. He'd never thought to see the day. And apparently he had to come up with a plan of how to make a madman see reason. His only point of consolation was, that he had the prophecy on his side in that endeavour.

Snape felt a heavy headache looming. He stood up to get a glass of brandy and to go to bed. He'd do the planning tomorrow.

* * *

Harry walked through the empty corridors on his long way back to the Gryffindor tower, thinking. Only his long experience in navigating the castle kept him from loosing the way or running into a wall with his attention thus diverted. Snape's reaction to his proposal was very unexpected. He'd thought, that Snape might consider an alliance – at best. Instead he'd jumped at the offer and proposed a rather crazy plan – which Harry accepted. The outcome was both better and worse than what he had hoped for. And Harry didn't even have to explain to what other conclusions he'd come this summer. He now saw many things in his life with clear eyes, things he had before ignored.

How closely access to Harry was guarded by Dumbledore even from his friends and family. It kept him safe, but that was it. Harry needed days to see the problem. Which was that despite his brilliance, Dumbledore really didn't understand kids. The man should never be trusted with the upbringing of any child. It really was just luck, that Harry wasn't still in the grip of his guilt over Sirius' death, no thanks to the headmaster.

How information was systematically kept from him. He always learned too late that there was something he didn't know. Currently he was searching for his fanpost, there must have been at least something. Also he was researching the 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black' as well as general wizard customs. He was very glad for Hermione's help. Hopefully she could understand what was going on with the professor.


	3. Chapter 2

_Gryffindor common room_

It wasn't long before curfew when Harry finally returned. He immediately went over to where his two friends sat at a table in a corner.

Ron was working on an essay but didn't hesitate before putting it away when Harry sat down. Ron launched his question: "So, how did it go? Blimey, I can't believe you actually did it."

Upon hearing this Hermione lowered her book and fixed her eyes on Harry's face, when he answered: "I can't believe I did it, too. And you know what, it gets stranger still. He heard me out, he accepted my vague proposal and proposed an alternative plan. It's a crazy plan. For now we're working on the details."

After these enlightening words Harry leaned back and folded his arms behind his head, while watching his friends who definitely didn't gape. He was slightly disappointed. Then Hermione closed her book with a snap. "Explain!" she demanded.

Harry looked away. "I'm not sure, that I can. This plan sounds so stupid. And thinking about it doesnt make it better."

He noticed the impatient looks his friends gave him. "All right, all right, I explain."

He huffed. "Seriously, give me some time.

"Anyway, he proposed that I don't kill Voldemort, at least not right away. Instead he will try to convince him to stop the violence. After that Voldy and I will try to become the two leaders of this country, one for the Light and one for the Dark. Both of us will work to reform the society. Since we will be equals, we'll balance each other out, so that neither side will be able to suppress the other. We'll have to fear death only by the others hands, and when we finally kill each other the prophecy will be fulfilled and others get their chances at leadership again. However that will be far in the future.

"Hu, putting it like this, it sounds nearly reasonable. Who'd have thought?"

Now his friends were gaping. It took them a long moment to regain their bearings.

Hermione: "You _want_ Voldemort to become sane again? And Professor Snape thinks, he can just convince him to do that?"

Harry snickered. At least this plan was great, when you wanted to shock other people.

Ron: "I don't know, how I feel about you wanting to not suppress dark wizards. That just ain't right."

Harry sighed. "Ron, you do remember, what I told you about the dark arts? How they aren't bad per se if they are learned in the right way and used responsible?"

Ron sighed, too. This was by now an old argument. "Yes Harry, I do. I'm just not sure, I trust your source. I mean, it's a Slytherin! He could have written down just about anything! They lie!"

"Don't give me that. That book can only be read by a parselmouth. Eros had no reason to write a whole book, just to lie to his family. And Hermione has since found other books whose authors agree with his views."

"Harry's right," Hermione jumped in "There are loads of really useful dark arts charms. Healers use them all the time. And don't forget, the patronus is a dark arts, too."

Ron of course knew this, having it heard at least ten times already in the last month. "Yeah, I know, I know. I just have a really difficult time believing, that there can be something good in the dark arts. As muggles would say, it is against my religion."

Harry laughed at that. It had been fun to tell Ron a little bit about muggle culture. It made talking to him about the wizard culture so much easier.

Hermione brought the conversation back on topic.

"Are you sure this plan will work? How _can_ you be sure, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "Yes, I'm sure. I don't know why. The prophecy is probably influencing me again. The bloody thing."

"Language, Harry," Hermione scolded, then frowned. "You do know, that it is against _my_ religion to believe in the powers of the prophecy?" Now it was Ron's turn to snicker. Hermione ignored him. "It's not that I don't believe you, but it's just so wrong to think that Trelawney of all people could do something to change the entire history of magical Britain!"

They all had mixed feelings about Trelawney. To learn that everybody could learn to predict the future but only a master seer could make a prophecy, had been a shock. It was really hard for them to believe, that Trelawney might be a competent seer. Also they all had loathed the time they had to spend in her classroom. Still, Ron had overcome his dislike for her and taken her up on her offer to take her NEWT course, something Harry just couldn't do with the way she had always predicted his death. But he helped Ron with the homework and was surprised how very different it was from their previous exercises. Instead of predicting the future, the NEWT students learned to see in the past and the present, which required more difficult techniques but was much easier to interpret, because there wasn't a choice anymore. Trelawney had assured the class that she only accepted students with a developed inner eye in her NEWT class. And that those who failed their OWLs just lacked the familiarity with the techniques, which they would learn in time for their NEWTs.

Apparently approximately half of the students, who gained their divination NEWT in Hogwarts, hadn't managed their OWLs. At least that was what Ron was told by a pureblood student, whose parents held Trelawney in high regard – another shock if there ever was one.

The trio had learned all this in their first week back in school. Hermione had still problems with the concept.

And now Ron was the sensible one and brought the conversation back on track. "You know Harry, you shouldn't just trust in the prophecy. If you do that, than You-Know-Who has equal chances to end you as you have to end him. You must come up with your own reasoning for the things you do. Say Snape does his job. I wouldn't count on the greasy git, but that's also your choice. What will you do then? How will you become a leader?"

Harry pondered on Ron's words. "You're right of course. But I really believe, that we can pull this off. As to the questions of how I will become a leader and what I will do as one, I don't know. Yet. I only know, that I'll need a lot of help."

He grinned at his friends. "I count on you for that. Let's ponder the question each on our own for now. I have this transfiguration essay to finish."

* * *

That night 23 muggles and two wizards were killed by Voldemorts forces. The shadows of death with their aura of doom, which were in Britain since a certain prophecy was made, laid heavily on the country. Both Sybill Trelawney and Harry Potter found little sleep that night. And when they slept, they had nightmares.

* * *

A/N: All will be explained in due time. I'm just trying to avoid infodumping. But do tell me, if something is more confusing than I was aiming for.


	4. Chapter 3

_Morning, Snape's room (at least to begin with)_

Snape woke up with a light headache. Whatever had possessed him to drink brandy in the middle of the week? Then he remembered – and suppressed a groan. Till now he had shared his views on divination with Minerva, but it seemed as if that had to change. He had to accept that seers wielded true power. Either that or he had to accept, that he had been driven insane – due to the constant pressure he was put under as spy, no doubt. In that case that surreal conversation with Potter would have been only the killing blow to his sanity. There couldn't be any other explanation for his acceptance of the offer for an alliance with the goal to take over the wizarding world by Harry James Potter, son of his school nemesis. He was tempted to drink some more brandy. Instead he ordered a house-elf to bring him some coffee and had a long cold shower.

As usual he had awoken early and so had the time to visit the library before breakfast. A place he was rarely visiting anymore. All the books he routinely needed could be found in his quarters and office. He nodded a greeting to Irma and went straight to the divination shelve in the restricted section. It held not many books, especially not if one compared it to the other subjects. Even the muggle studies shelve held more volumes. Most of the books were about how to protect one from a seers vision and how to circumvent said protections. One was a perfectly normal divination textbook, which just happened to be written by a dark witch. One was about a pervert artist, who just happened to be a seer several hundred years ago, and who had painted some very interesting pictures from famous people of his time.

There was only one short text which was of interest to him. It was about the magic of a seer and how it was different from anybody else's. It mentioned that due to the passive nature of their art the more powerful seers had trouble utilizing offensive magic. And that that was the reason why centaurs still used bow and arrows to defend themselves.

Further research had to be delayed till after classes. He needed some breakfast to survive another day of brats trying to kill each other and/or themselves. The dunderheads were just incapable of understanding that even mostly harmless jinxes could be dangerous, especially when they were done wrong. And during lunch he had to do the next step on the potion he was brewing to keep Dumbledore alive.

He should have remembered yesterday to ask Potter after the author of the book he mentioned. For now his best bet was to look for thick books about little known magical facts.

* * *

_Evening, Hogwarts library_

The research had been exhausting. Most of the time divination didn't even merit a mention in the author's views. When Snape had come across the term prophecy, it was merely used as another word for a normal prediction. He hadn't known back then when he heard half of a prophecy – of which he learned the other half only yesterday – but no normal prediction would have laced the air with that heavy feeling of suppressing magic. If that was a prophecy than to use the term for a simple prediction is scandalously incorrect.

As a interesting fact he learned that scrying spells had been adapted from divination techniques for those who were more comfortable with a wand – a tool which seers only rarely used.

He was nearly ready to call it a day and to return to his quarters and the marking of essays when he finally found just the information he needed. He'd have liked, if he'd found corresponding proof, too, but for now he'd trust the book which seemed to have been buried in dust, if the cloud ascending from it was any indication. He used a translation charm, designed to transform a text into a more modern version, and set to analyse the text

_'Beware, if there ever comes a time when all hope seems lost, when your people are fighting a foe to whom you dare not loose but yet can't win, when defeat looms just around the corner, then is the time to call on the might of a seer. For a seer can channel Fate on Earth, to bring victory or utter damnation, to help and hinder, to even the field whatever the odds and whatever the cost. A seer drinks tea with Death and Death walks the Earth on her bidding. _

_And if that is still not enough, if the fate of your people stays up in the air, if everything stays the same and nothing changes, then you might ask the seer to call on her might again, to let Chance run wild, to make the impossible possible, to give a hero hope. _

_Pray to the heavens and to the old ghosts of the Earth that you never must ask the seer to call on her might a third time for then you were forsaken from the beginning and Chance is not enough to save you. Only the sacrifice of a life might earn your people the chance of redemption from the all-seeing-eye.' _

The phrasing was ridiculous and Snape had no idea what religion the author was referring to, but to him it was clear that he meant prophecies when he talked about the might of the seer and apparently there were such things as secondary and tertiary prophecies. And if he interpreted that passage right then the secondary prophecy is meant to stir things up again after they have gone quiet, which certainly described the outbreak of the second wizarding war exactly. That might mean that his and Potter's curious urge to prolong the conflict might stem from a secondary prophecy. Now he had to hope that Potter was just such a dunderhead to forget to mention this kind of crucial information and not in fact didn't know if one was made.

But now was the time to return to the work for his paid job. Further research had to wait till he could have a word with Potter. He sneered at the thought.

* * *

This evening Sybill Trelawney sat in her tower drinking tea. She tried to forget a toad named Umbridge. She was unsuccessful but her eyes shone with a steely resolve.

The trio had a stressful day full of schoolwork.

Voldemort had to deal with after action reports and planning. Luckily for him he had a day of insane clarity to get the work done.

* * *

A/N: I'd like to thank all who've reviewed my story. It is good to know, that it isn't only me, who finds the idea interesting. Thank you. I'll soon stop to call the idea insane every chapter.

I'm quite sure, that you'd have no problem finding the second prophecy, but I'll make it even easier and just post it here:

_'It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight... the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master...'_


	5. Chapter 4

_Hogwarts dungeon_

Harry Potter felt once again apprehensive while nearing the professor's office. Snape had slipped him a note during the DADA class this afternoon hidden in his homework. It only specified meeting place and time and Harry rather dreaded what the professor might have come up with. But he had asked for an alliance and now he had to life with the consequences. Harry knocked on the door and then waited to be called in, which he was, curtly. Snape was waiting for him behind his desk. He looked at him appraisingly and then waved at the chair before his desk. "Sit," he commanded.

When Harry did as he was told, Snape continued: "I have thought about your request. But before we can discuss that topic I require some answers from you."

Harry thought it best to answer with just a silent nod.

"First. Do you know, if Professor Trelawney ever made another prophecy? She would have done so presumably during or before your fourth year."

Harry frowned. He'd nearly forgotten about that one. After he had told Dumbledore, there didn't seem anything more to be done about it.

"Well, yes. She made one during my divination exam in my third year. That was the day when I met Sirius."

His voice broke. It had been nearly half a year, but the mention of Sirius still brought him close to tears. And Snape was the last man with whom he wanted to discuss his godfather, ever. He pressed forward before Snape could interrupt him and make him dwell on his misery, but his voice was shaky.

"She told me that Voldemort's servant, Pettigrew, would flee to his master and that he would rise again. More terrible then before, is what she said, I believe. Why do you ask? I told Dumbledore as soon as I could."

Snape glared at him. "You didn't mention this before. Even though I asked, if we had anything more to discuss. Considering what you told me about prophecies, this is rather important. This alliance won't work, if you aren't open with me about this kind of information. Now I'd like you to tell me the exact wording, if you please."

Harry nearly glared back.

"I don't remember the exact wording. I didn't expect to hear a prophecy then. And after I relayed the warning to Dumbledore, there didn't seem anything more to be done about it."

Snape's voice became even curter, but for now he had his temper in check.

"Call him headmaster. And give it your best try."

Harry huffed.

"Fine. The servant will be set free, before midnight. He shall return to his master, who will rise more terrible than ever before. Or something like that. And now you tell me, how you guessed, that there was another prophecy!"

Snape visibly inhaled to try and calm down. Loosing his temper now would be counterproductive. Potter was still an arrogant brat. Instead of answering him directly, he showed him a copy of the text passage about secondary prophecies. Unfortunately that was the only useful information on that topic in that book.

Studying the text, Harry also calmed down. "I see what you mean, sir. I didn't know that about prophecies. Of course, I had only that one source till now. And I'm sorry, but that's as clear as I can remember."

The tone of the conversation had once again become civil.

Snape relented.

"I'd like for you to tell me, who wrote 'Magical arts: Roses with many thorns'. So far I've been unable to locate it."

Harry snickered. "Eros Slytherin. I doubt, that you'll find it, though, professor. The book is written in parseltongue."

Snape stared. "I wouldn't have thought, that parseltongue could be written down. It seems unnecessary."

Harry grinned. "Neither did I. Luckily Eros explained that, too. Apparently Slytherin wanted to keep his pet basilisk and needed a way to control it. To that end he enchanted an existing unused language to be understood and obeyed by snakes. Being able to write in that language is just a byproduct. But it can't be translated by charms anymore. Hermione tried."

Normally Snape would have enjoyed this information about his house founder's genius, as it was he had to suppress the urge to sigh.

"You'll copy the whole chapter on divination from that book, Potter. I didn't find much information yesterday and I have other things to do with my time. Do you have any theory, why the magic from the prophecies lets us prolong this conflict, instead of urging us on to end it?"

Harry started at that question, not having considered it before. He thought for a bit.

"Not really. Maybe it's because the second prophecy makes it possible for the war to be fought on a greater size, and that allows up that we may make it greater still?"

Now Snape frowned.

"That might just be it. We'll likely never know. Now that we've finally shared the important information," here Snape glared at Harry to make sure his point came across. "Let's develop some plans. As of now you may be famous, but all the influence that gives you is used by others. Your first order of business must be to make more contacts. It would be a mistake to solely rely on mine and the Weasley's. Don't confine yourself to Gryffindors. If you trust your friends, you can delegate a part of that task to them. I'd however strongly suggest that you become part of the Hogwarts rhetoric club. Your abilities in that regard are abysmal.

"On my end I'll likely need to reveal the full prophecy to the Dark Lord. Do you have any objections to this plan?"

Harry blinked.

"I might. We've fought so hard to keep the knowledge out of his hands. Of course, that was with the old plan, but that is still the fallback plan. It might not be totally ruined, even when Voldemort knows all the facts. But don't do it, if you are not sure that it works, professor."

Snape glared again.

"That is a given, Mr Potter. Don't presume to give me orders. The best plan I have, the plan with the most potential for success, is actually to show him the memory of our meeting two days ago. Just so you know."

There was a moment of silence, where Harry hunched his shoulders defensively. Then Snape talked again.

"We'll eventually need a way to exchange information on short notice. I've found that it is best to use a loyal house-elf for this kind of job, if one has one?"

It would also be the easiest solution to set up.

"Well, sir, there is Kreacher, whom I inherited from Sirius," this time the pause which Harry made after speaking the beloved name was hardly noticeable, " but he dislikes me. Then there is Dobby, who works for the school."

Snape considered the choice. He knew, how dangerous the freedom was, which a servant could find in obeying orders. Servants who did exactly as they were told had become the downfall of countless masters in magical history. Often obeying orders literally was the only way for magical creatures to rebel.

"If he is capable of keeping a secret than let's use Dobby."

Harry nodded and called for the excitable elf.

The meeting ended with a cheerful elf, who was eager to help the great wizard, a mostly pleased Harry Potter, this alliance worked better than he could have hoped for, and a disgruntled Severus Snape, who soon had to attempt the hardest part of their agreement.

* * *

_excerpt from 'Magical arts: Roses with many thorns':_

_On parseltongue_

_The work which our ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, has done to create parseltongue is simply brilliant. The enchantment took a long time to achieve its full effect, but I'm certain that I'm among the last, who could discern traces from the origin in it. My children believed before they learned otherwise that snakes talked in English. I talk to snakes in a language which isn't English. I never had to learn that language and I could always translate it easily in my head. My parents still had to learn the language, as had my grandparents and their parents and so on. I'm told that over the generations learning the language has become easier for our family, while it has become more difficult for others. Nowadays parseltongue sounds like snakelike hissing to outsiders, even if it is spoken by a human. Even in my grandparents days words could be easily discerned, they just always sounded as if they were hissed. My family is sure that strangers still could have learned the language back then, if they thought it worth the effort. Today that seems to have become impossible. But since nobody who wasn't part of our family could ever understand what the snakes said, only very few people wanted to learn it. Some learned some basic commands, since snakes obeyed everybody who spoke in that language, but nothing more. I heard that even the commanding quality needed time to develop. At first snakes barely obeyed a command to stop moving, if it wasn't to inconvenient. Today we can give commands, which the snakes can't possible understand from their experience, but they still carry them out. Like to search for jewelry or some such things, which are of no interest to a snake. If one of our family tries to force an intelligent magical snake to obey a command, it becomes a battle of wills which can go either way. _

_If it is true that our ancestor enchanted the language to control a pet basilisk, the early limits must have been frustrating for him. _

_Sadly, if he did leave notes about how one enchants something as insubstantial as a language, they were lost in time and we have no way to recreate his work. _

* * *

A/N: I'm just glad that I can blame Snape's and Harry's interaction on magic and mixed feelings.


	6. Chapter 5

_Malfoy Manor_

It was a late Friday evening. Snape had apparated to the secretly guarded apparition point of Malfoy Manor to give his usual report. He might have believed himself to be alone outside in a peaceful night, weren't it for the fact that he could feel himself being watched and that he knew that procedure called for a guard to be on alert at all times. He bared his mark for the hidden guard but kept his face hidden behind his mask before starting to walk to the manor.

Only now that he was soon about to reveal the alliance, which had been offered to him by Potter, to the Dark Lord, did it occur to him that he'd never even considered to talk about this affair with Albus. Under normal circumstances he would debate any new subject with him before presenting it to the Dark Lord. This was just another instant where he had been unable to fight the impact of the prophecy to make his own choice. He hadn't even recognized the influence in time. He felt increasingly irritated by that damned thing. He considered quite seriously if he shouldn't just curse Potter for bringing it to his attention. For now he hoped that the infringement on his free will wasn't as bad as it seemed at the moment, but that the magic was exhausting itself to bring about the massive change of strategy on both sides of this war. He'd have to continue to monitor his thought process before he could come to any conclusions. He should probably advise Potter to do the same, in the vain hope that he could finally learn to do this kind of delicate task. Ironically, if he could achieve it, Snape would also suspect the help of the prophecy. The plan could only work, if Potter must not always depend on him for the planning and making of decisions, but had to be able to consider situations himself.

As Snape neared the manor he forced those thoughts aside and concentrated on the report he was about to give. Very soon after his arrival he was permitted into the Dark Lords presence, alone, as was usual. He could only catch up on the most basic death eater gossip beforehand – last week the raids went well, no casualties. Then he knelt before the Dark Lord and gave a succinct report of the activities of the order. They still lacked the information for active engagements and so concentrated on improving their response – time and tactics – to attacks with some small success. They also tried to advance their information gathering network, but that was information he wasn't always privy to.

Only after giving his routine report and receiving orders about what secrets he should unearth next and what potions needed to be replaced did he mention Potter's proposal. He described the actual offer in one short sentence – they should work together to make the wizarding world a better place with Potter supplying the power and Snape the mind for their plans – as well as the reason for the offer – Potter wanted everybody to get along with each other and thought that the two of them together might be able make everybody do so. Then he mentioned that Potter had done some research on prophecies and to proof his goodwill Potter had told him the whole prophecy and had explained what he thought it meant. Before this the Dark Lord had smirked with faint amusement about the boy's antics, but now he bolted upright.

"Show me," he demanded with a snarl. Till now Snape had spoken with his head lowered but now he raised it to meet the eyes of the Dark Lord as he leaned forward. He was prepared for the intrusion into his mind and easily showed him to the right memory. After they had watched the whole initial meeting they broke eye contact with Snape once again letting his head sink down and the Dark Lord leaning back.

"Interesting," he mused. Then his voice became cold: "You should have come to me immediately. You shouldn't have waited till today. Crucio!"

The Dark Lord shot the spell out quickly and Snape broke down screaming on the cold marble floor.

Afterward Voldemort's usually hate-filled expression became more thoughtful.

"Wait outside for further orders. I have to think about this."

Thankful for the respite Snape left the Dark Lord to his pondering. After drinking a potion to relieve his pain he went hunting for more interesting rumours and news.

* * *

It was rare that Voldemort came across new fundamental information about magic and that was exactly what Potter's information on prophecies was. He might have believed it a mere theory were it not for the collaborating facts. Primarily there was the fact that their past happened as it happened and not otherwise. Then there was the prophecy itself.

The prophecy was not what he had expected it to be. For one it was simpler than he could have imagined it. And yet it had worked beautifully in Potter's favour. Only recently had the boy suffered setbacks, only recently had Voldemort secured his previous position in their world. Yet it was still not as it had been. Now that he'd heard Potter's vague plans he could admit to himself that his recent struggles lacked vision. The war was now all about his conflict with Potter and Dumbledore. He scowled. That was not what he wanted to stand for. He wanted to lead the wizarding world into greatness, but he couldn't quite remember what that entailed anymore. Instead his thoughts almost involuntarily focused on the fools who hindered him or on the fools who stood against him and what to do to them. He needed a clear head to remember what it had been that he wanted to achieve. Luckily he knew of one object which could help him with that. He'd have to order Snape to retrieve it. He shuddered at the risk he was about to put himself into. But it couldn't be avoided and therefore it was best to get it over with as fast as possible. He called for Snape.

* * *

_Gryffindor common room_

Ginny felt happy when she watched Harry talking cheerfully with her brother and Hermione. After last year she had feared that he would hide himself inside a shell, but she had known that there really was nothing she could do to help him. She had been positively surprised when she saw him again later in the summer. He had been thoughtful and often withdrawn, but he still responded to the world and could even laugh on occasion. And he finally started to recognize her as a girl. She hardly dared to believe her luck when she first noticed him looking at her. He really looked at her and blushed when he noticed that he had been caught at it.

She remembered how Hermione had described his short relationship with Cho. She had to consider that he might still be oblivious, so she still had to seduce him. Unfortunately he had lately begun to work and read much more often, leaving himself with hardly any free time. Also it seemed that the trio was plotting something, they often used some kind of inobtrusive ward to keep their conversation secret. At first she'd believed it best to leave the friends to their scheme, at school most of those were private and over quickly. But now after more than a month of this secretive behaviour Ginny felt her curiosity growing. She resolved to ask Hermione, if they could do with some help.

* * *

_Hogwarts corridors_

Snape mused about the rift which was growing between him and Albus, of which Albus wasn't even aware yet. He had been ordered to return to Hogwarts to retrieve an item and return immediately to the Dark Lord without telling the headmaster of his brief return. Usually he would have disobeyed and would have showed the item to the headmaster regardless, but he couldn't do that tonight. It would have put his agreement with Potter in jeopardy. And since when did he value his relationship with Potter over his relationship with the headmaster?

He reached the room, which the Dark Lord had described to him. Navigating the room proofed to be complicated but the Dark Lord's instruction were accurate enough, that he found the right item quickly. He handled the dark object carefully, never touching it, and returned to Malfoy Manor.

There he was finally relieved from duty for the night after handing the item over to the Dark Lord.

It was already early in the morning before he could retire to sleep. In bed he mused for what the Dark Lord might need a cursed diadem and why it had been in Hogwarts and had not been retrieved by the Dark Lord at an earlier opportunity.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry adenoide, but what is your first language? I've trouble understanding what you want to say in your reviews and I think I missed the point of your last one.


	7. Chapter 6

_Malfoy Manor_

Voldemort couldn't help but to feel nervous for sending Severus after one of his horcruxes. He trusted Severus of course, he was one of his, but one never knew, when Dumbledore might interfere. There shouldn't be a reason for him to wander the halls tonight, but this logical reassurance wasn't enough to suppress his tiny doubts. There wasn't much anymore that Voldemort feared, but Dumbledore getting his hands on any of his horcruxes was one of those fears.

He only could relax again when Severus's return was announced. His shoulders sagged a little in relief and he called him in immediately for another private audience. It was the first time in a long while since he had last been in the presence of one of his old horcruxes. He had forgotten what their presence felt like. Nagini's was oddly different. Maybe because she was alive and his familiar?

The horcrux' aura was dimmed by the bag Severus presented it in, but the overwhelming sense of familiarity still left him struggling for words. He nearly needed a full minute before he could order Severus to just leave the diadem on the table and to return to Hogwarts. Then he forbade any disturbances for the next day. The aura of the horcrux reminded him of something and that bore contemplating.

At first he just familiarized himself again with the feeling, which the horcrux gave him. He felt simultaneously repulsed and attracted by it. But he forced himself to ignore that sensation for now. Now that he paid close attention Voldemort could tell, that the aura had definitely changed. In the beginning just after he made his horcruxes, they had felt like an extension of himself. This one still was that, but it had also changed. It felt more remote but also sharper and keener than himself even. And it wasn't just Voldemort, who had changed since back then.

The phenomen was fascinating. Voldemort had never known that horcruxes could develop on their own. The descriptions he had found made them sound as if they stayed forever the same and with very little sentience at that. Maybe the horcrux had been influenced by the magic of the diadem? Ravenclaw's diadem might be the one object capable to give a horcrux the ability to think. The possibilities of this explanation excited him. He might not only use the diadem but also consult with the horcrux. Another version of himself might make the perfect sounding board for his plans.

Voldemort felt more thrilled than he had in years. Still, as he at last decided to use the diadem, he couldn't help but ponder where he had also felt a similar yet different sense of familiarity with something. Or was it someone?

* * *

_Saturday afternoon, Hogwarts rhetoric club_

Harry made his way to a room near the great hall. After his last conversation with Snape he had studied the various clubs on the blackboard again, but most of them still didn't interest him. He probably should use the Slug club to make connections. There everybody knew for what talents and achievements the others were there, which would make things ever so much easier, if he had the first clue what kind of connections he would really need. Hermione had suggested to start the DA again. This year they were actually learning something in the Defense class. But many students might need their confidence bolstered again after loosing it to Snape's teaching methods. She thought, it would help to remind people of his achievements. Harry kind of agreed with her, but add Quidditch and that was as much social activity as Harry could stand. He still preferred spending his time with just a few friends.

Harry opened the door to the room, which housed the rhetoric club every Saturday for two hours in the afternoon. He saw maybe fifteen students and only one was a Gryffindor, a seventh year. Otherwise the club was fairly divided between the other houses. He only saw two people, he had spoken to before, Luna Lovegood and Zacharias Smith. That made the decision of what to do next easy. He went to Luna.

She wore her usual unusual attire of bottle cap necklace and radish earrings, today with a leaf-patterned robe.

"Hello Luna, may I sit here?"

She gazed at him in her usual dreamy way, too.

"If you do, you might disturb some Nargles, but that should still be better than the alternatives. So I'd say, yes, you may sit, Harry Potter."

Luna's answers didn't even surprise him anymore. He sat down with only a thank you. Since everybody was still talking with each other and only a few looked at him curiously, he turned to Luna to ask her about the club.

"So, Luna, I've been told that my rhetoric skills are next to non-existent. Do you think, that I can acquire some here?"

"This is indeed a good place to find some," she agreed, "here the Wrackspurts will hardly ever disturb you."

"That is good then. And what should I expect from a meeting here?", he asked next.

"Different things as you'll soon see. Speeches and debates. Isn't it strange that somebody can convince you that the sky is green, when he doesn't believe it himself. He'd use the wrong arguments, too."

Harry felt himself relaxing. He liked these conversations with Luna and he smiled at those who still watched him.

"So you like it here? Do you really talk about the colour of the sky?"

Maybe this was a good idea after all.

* * *

_Malfoy Manor_

Voldemort sat alone in a windowless room deep in the manor. He didn't move and no breath was in the air. The only source of light was a steady burning magical torch. Nobody dared to disturb him yet, but even if someone did, Voldemort wouldn't notice. His eyes were open, but he didn't see, neither the furniture nor the paintings in the shadows. He was entirely focused on the turmoil in his mind. It had been easy enough to connect with his horcrux. It was like finding access to a long forgotten part of himself. Well, of course it was, but. It was like reentering a long lost part of his brain, like remembering various different ways to think his thoughts. He couldn't really say how those thoughtpatterns were different from the ones he used, this part of him thought just as coldly and analytical as himself, yet it came to more varied conclusions.

It had been another surprise for Voldemort to discover that the horcrux had his own memories. Horcruxes weren't supposed to be able to gather their own memories.

And then there were the memories themselves. The horcrux hadn't had anything better to do than to analyse itself over the years. It had come to conclusions which threatened his understanding of the theory on horcruxes'. He knew, he had to examine these conclusions for himself before he could believe them. And then he had to decide what kind of changes in his plans these realizations made necessary.

He also had to remember, where he encountered the sense of familiarity, which was likely a sign that somewhere there was a horcrux where non should be. And he still had to reevaluate his goals and his strategy and how they had changed since before his downfall – that thought made his wandhand twitch. For that he still had to use the diadem which was a task by itself. A task which had never failed to give him a headache. And he had to ponder about Potter's theory on prophecies and the prophecy itself. Time to stop dawdling.

* * *

_some letters between Harry and Snape, each delivered discreetly by Dobby on the weekend_

_To Snape_

Dear Professor Snape,

I've thought about the topic and asked my friends on their thoughts since the last time we talked, but I'd still like an adult opinion. What are the most important connections I need to make?

Sincerely, Potter

_To Harry_

Don't use any names, you imbecile. The mode of delivery makes it obvious who the sender and the recipient are. Your first connection should be the headmaster. He has much experience with politic and many more contacts than most politicians can gain during their whole career. He is also already sympathetic to you. Otherwise most important are connections to lawyers, bureaucrats mostly in law enforcement, entrepreneurs, aurors, bankers, politicians, some creatures. But in truth you should have connections in all fields.

_To Snape_

Sorry. But the headmaster never talks about politics. Our talks are always related to Voldemort. And isn't he much to busy with the war?

_To Harry_

Ask him. Show an interest. Show your concerns. Don't discount him prematurely, only because he is occupied with the war.

* * *

_Malfoy Manor_

When Voldemort used the diadem he felt like some kind of fog had lifted from his mind. That was different from previous times, he had used it, when he had hardly felt a difference with or without the diadem. That just supported one of the horcrux' conclusions, and since those might be able to provide explanations for most of his current puzzle, he examined them first. The horcrux was indisputable right. He also remembered that it was Potter who felt eerily similar like himself and suddenly all made sense.

Potter was a horcrux. Nagini felt unlike the other horcruxes because she was his eight soul splitter and thus not part of the first seven. It wasn't just him who had gained magical strength from having split himself in seven parts, but each horcrux had become more magical. For that reason they also had their own personality for which he had unknowingly paid the obvious prize of the sacrifice of part of his own personality. Or maybe he should better say humanity.

But he only paid that prize after the completion of his sixth horcrux – Potter. It should have been impossible for him to make a horcrux without the ritual, but he'd begun to accept that little was impossible when he and Potter met. Right now he was ready to believe, that the only thing which was impossible for them together was for one of them to die.

So with part of his humanity he had lost some leadership abilities like understanding humans. He might be able to regain them by thinking purely logically about human reactions with the help of the diadem, but there had to be a better solution.

He had to laugh. The inhuman monster wanted to be human again.

Voldemort needed more than one day to finalise his next plans and to rethink part of his strategy.

* * *

A/N: Adenoide: Thank you for clarifying. I'll give more explanation on how the prophecies in this story work in the next chapter.

Moi: Interesting idea. I just won't use it in this story.

Next chapter will be up in two days.


	8. Chapter 7: Three years in a tower

_Harry's first divination lesson_

When Sybill Trelawney waited for the students to enter her classroom, she knew that this class would be different. And oh dear, there he was, one of the two foci of her prophecy, looking just like any innocent child to the world. She of course wasn't fooled. She'd felt him as soon as he entered Hogwarts two years ago. However this was the first time, that she was in the same room as him. The aura of gloom around him was much more intense than around anyone else she's ever met, even around the school's potions master or its fool of a headmaster. But unlike the others he wasn't simple caught in the net. No, instead there were shades around him, sometimes leading, sometimes following, sometimes even helping. And someday they would lead him to his death as she had prophecied. She should be able to make everyone sense this aura. Oh yes, this would be her class with the most graduates, that is, if they didn't all die before graduating. Looking around that seemed to be a disheartening possibility. Ah well, she couldn't do much about that in the moment. Maybe if they learned to sense the doom hanging about their world, they would be appropriately cautious.

She began with the lecture she had designed to make her pupils perceptive to the currently most prevalent aura, setting them on edge, making them think about fears, loss and destruction. Even the destruction of a teacup counted.

Meanwhile she evaluated the children. Most were the usual. They were curious about the new subject but didn't know what to expect. Some had chosen the subject themselves, a few had been sent by their parents. Even in these dark days there were a few witches and wizards who watched the seers with keen eyes and among those she had the reputation of a good teacher. Luckily she had managed to hide her real competence as a divination master, to be widely known as such still brought trouble. Non of these children had to be worried about that though. Non of them had the makings of a true divination master. Some had the talent to become more or less competent seers but even that was hardly developed yet.

And then there was the muggleborn witch Hermione Granger. Sybill suppressed the urge to sigh. Really, every other year she had a muggleborn in her class, who had been raised to believe in logic above all else. It was a useful way to think – in other subjects. Sybill foresaw many developments made by witches and wizards like Granger, but the girl would need an intensive course just to open her inner eye again, which she wouldn't get at Hogwarts. Usually she advised those students to drop the course immediately for another subject, but she sensed that Granger would be too stubborn to take her up on her advise. She would want to give it a try. And since she already used a time-turner to try out all subjects there was little harm in letting her do it. Hopefully she wouldn't distract her other pupils too much. She would drop the subject before the end of the schoolyear, that actually might made for a nice prediction to set the mood.

When the children had settled to work with their teacups, she began to walk around, prepared to step in, when they began to fool around. She always had to do so at least twice per class period before the children's subconsciousness became used to the intense aura in the classroom. Otherwise they might destroy the mood. When she came near to Potter and Weasley she became aware of another rather unfortunate circumstance. Weasley already was somewhat perceptive to the gloomy aura around Potter and had developed the habit to constantly try to lighten the mood to shut it out. And Potter went along with that habit. Teaching those two would proof to be another challenge. She had to discourage them from always shutting the world out and would need to constantly watch them for all those bad habits listless students developed. And Potter could need a reminder that things were dangerous. That settled the decision of who she would inform today that he too was mortal and would therefor die someday. It was simple astonishing how many people called those false predictions, when they were so blatantly true. Still these predictions always made an impact on the minds of the children and too many of them needed it in order to learn to open their inner eye consciously. After all she was paid to teach them exactly that and she'd use what worked.

* * *

_christmas lunch, Harry's third year_

Sybill had been very surprised when she saw herself walking down to christmas lunch. It was a basic fact of divination that a seer never saw a vision which could still be altered by the seer. The only way a seer could learn something about her own future was through feelings – and basic logic deduction, but which seer bothered with those? Clearly the vision wasn't a vision but a message, yet from whom was it and what purpose served it? Ah well, if she had to dine in company, she might as well enjoy it and further the education of her students. So when the time came to join the table she instead first pointed out one of the present omens – to remind them that they, too, could do so. Those omens were everywhere in daily life and could tell the observant people quite a bit about what lied ahead in the future. Afterwards, when she finally sat at the table, she tried to relax and make smalltalk, but was deterred by McGonagall's disdain. Sybill felt anger rise in her and couldn't help but to chastise her: "Certainly I knew, Minerva, but one does not parade the fact that one is All-Knowing. I frequently act as though I am not possessed of the Inner Eye, so as not to make others nervous."

It was even true. Of course she wasn't all-knowing, but it would be equally bad if everyone was to learn that she could find out everything she wanted about a person. It was far safer to pretend to falsely belief oneself all-knowing. Well-known seers tended to be kidnapped a lot. And now that they had established, which topics were better avoided, the reminder of the lunch went as well as could be expected. The only remarkable event afterward was when Weasley and Potter stood up together and so diminished the might of the omen. McGonagall's sarcastic comment on that event wasn't worth her attention.

* * *

_Harry's first crystal ball lesson_

Lately Sybill had tried to capture the image of one of death's shades in her crystal balls. She suspected that she would be able to see quite a bit more about them from that perspective. So far the project had proofed to be difficult. Today she wanted to try, if direct exposure of the balls to the shades made the balls more receptive to them. It hardly mattered that she had to change the lesson plan for this. The students, if they were at all interested, would later learn the techniques for their preferred methods and forget the rest. What techniques they had learned in her classroom would then be mostly irrelevant. Also she had a feeling that knowledge about crystal balls would soon enough proof useful.

Sybill made her usual lecture and set the students to work. The class behaved as usual, most students quietly got on with their tasks and the trio around Potter caused a disturbance. Teaching was becoming nearly impossible with Granger and Weasley together in her class. Something had to be done. Luckily Granger was nearly ready to leave them, maybe she just should push her a bit. She got distracted when she looked at their ball. Her ploy had worked! A shade had passed through the ball and had left an image behind. Curious she watched what it would do and saw it changing shape into a dog, which might have been a grim. She described the scene on automatic for the benefit of the class, when she got rudely interrupted by Granger.

Enough was enough! Normally she would things play out by themselves, but this time she would do what she had to, so that she would be able to do her work properly. She told Granger exactly in what shape her inner eye was. As she expected that was enough to make her leave. She was grateful that Brown remembered her prediction of this event. She now would be more eager to learn how to make predictions and would now only need a few nudges to direct her efforts correctly. All in all her ploy had been a success.

* * *

_Harry's divination test, third year_

Sybill was quite impressed by the progress Patil had made over the year. She'd managed to see a pale shadow of what was there to see and interpreted it correctly. That she then invented some more details didn't diminish her initial success. Weasley on the other hand continued to frustrate. First he didn't see what he should have been perceptive enough to see and then after the perceivable images changed he went ahead and invented the vision he missed. Whatever should she do with the boy?

Her thoughts got interrupted when she sensed Potter's guard of shades entering. This time they preceded him. And instead of watching Potter as they usually did, they watched her. She felt apprehension, when she thought about the possible meanings of this development. Today she might be able to change the world again.

Potter's test itself brought another surprise. She hadn't expected him to see anything yet and so anticipated that he would make something up as usual. And he did that. But instead of comforting to her usual demands he made his vision up out of wishful thinking. Evaluating him anew she concluded that he would stand up in any way she could for his friends, even when that effort was obviously futile as in this case. The poor boy was so lonely that he'd fight tooth and nail for his friends. He needed a person, who cared more for him than for everyone else, who could be there for him when even his friends couldn't. And with a jolt she realized, that she could help him find one. This hour was the hour when she could make the minor prophecy and she could make it so, that the boy's feet were set on the path, which would lead him to his guardian. Briefly she wondered, if that really was a good idea. The prophecy would have to maintain the balance and would therefor have to affect both sides in this conflict, making them both stronger. But she needed only to glance one last time at the sad looking boy to make up her mind. This boy needed help. And so Sybill made her second prophecy with only Potter there as witness.

After the confused boy had left the classroom and Sybill examined the words she had spoken, her doubts came back. She had just escalated the personal vendetta between Potter and the Dark Lord Riddle to something that could easily become a full scale war. The magical world was without doubt not ready for the devastating effects of a war. Even after a decade of peace the community was brittle.

Sybill let out a deep sigh. She'd watch the events unfold, of course, but for now her part was done.

* * *

_Later that evening_

As the seer who made the prophecy she could easily tell just when the unfolding events had been influenced. Potter needed a nudge to safe Pettigrew's life. Lupin would have remembered to drink the wolfsbane potion. Snape might have stayed ignorant of the whole mess. Dumbledore definitely wouldn't have suggested the use of the time-turner. The boy was definitely under the influence of the prophecy when he achieved the impossible and conjured a corporeal patronus with only thirteen years, a patronus which was more powerful than most adults ever managed. And ironically Potter's false vision had come to pass, which held some significance, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what it meant. The balance was unchanged. Both sides got a new recruit, who was an animagus and a fugitive. She had helped the boy, but the life of the common witch and wizard would become much, much harder.

She felt numb. But she remembered the smile on the boy's face when he learned that he still had family left who cared about him above all else. And she remembered the emotions the boy used to conjure his patronus. She couldn't regret her choice.

* * *

_first divination lesson in Harry's fourth year_

The fourth years were the most exhausting of her classes, unruly teenagers who didn't yet take their studies seriously. It was difficult to hold their attention without resolving to a sterner teaching approach which only would destroy the mood she worked so hard to keep up. The right atmosphere was essential when the untrained wanted to predict the future. She tried to keep the students attention by making random predictions. Sybill had done that so long she nearly did it on automatic now. Right now she tried to determine just why her reading on Potter had become so confusing since she'd last seen him at the end of his third year. Unfortunately she told one of her observations, which couldn't possibly true, aloud only remembering herself when it was too late. Of course Potter had been born in summer and not in winter. Only the connection between him and the Dark Lord had become so strong over the summer, that she couldn't be certain any more, which one of the two she was reading by looking at Potter. And now that she'd said the wrong prediction aloud, keeping the class in line had become so much more difficult.

This would be a tiring year.

* * *

_another astrology lesson in Harry's fourth year_

It was always the astrology part of the class, when Sybill got the most invented homework essays. That particular art required from beginners constant consultation of many tables and meticulous attention to details. Mediocre seers, who specialised in astrology, learned those by rote. Few students were willing to dedicate this kind of effort to their homework. For this reason she made it obvious that the students could get away with faking their homework as long as they made their predictions creative and gloomy. They might not be able to sense the presence of Death and they might not believe their own predictions, but when they spent an hour or so thinking up dreadful fates for themselves and writing them down, they became more receptive to the aura from Death's kingdom that was really there. And that fact made that hour a hour well-spent in Sybill's estimation and earned the student good marks from her. But it seemed that Finnegan still hadn't wisened up to this quirk of her and had instead tried to make his fake predictions appear more likely. She'd just have to teach him a lesson. She picked a particular inventive essay, Potter's of course, and read it aloud, praising it. He even had a small measure of truth in his predictions, but it was so distorted that he was likely to miss it when they came to pass. Looking through the various essays it was obvious that the whole class would benefit from more practice, so she gave them the same homework again, only for a different time period of course. She also made sure to let Finnegan know, that he failed at his homework.

* * *

_late astrology lesson in Harry's fourth year_

Soon they would be able to finally wrap up the astrology part of her lectures. Sybill was glad for that. If it weren't required for the OWLs, she'd hardly bother with the art herself. Astrology was much more suited to the centaur's magic than to the magic of witches and wizards. If it weren't for the arrogance of humans, who couldn't leave an entire magical field in the hand of creatures, human astrology would never have been invented. However she wasn't so stupid to tell this bit of knowledge to her students. They didn't need any more excuses to don't pay attention to her. She'd recovered most of the attention which she'd lost due to the mistake she'd made early in this year. With Weasley and Potter it was still a struggle, but with those two she hadn't expected anything different. And today there was something different about Potter. He seemed to be drifting yet not quite sleeping like a trance. He shouldn't be able to already do that. The phenomenon was puzzling. When he fell down clutching his scar she was hit by the sudden realization of what had to have happened. He'd used his connection to the Dark Lord as a crutch for his inner eye. This way he could only see specific visions about the Dark Lord. But it was definitely a start and she could train him to receive visions without relying on the scar. Unfortunately it wouldn't be easy to convince him to let her help him. Her teaching method made her not a favourite teacher for most students. But maybe, if she could persuade him right away, he might listen to her.

But alas, it seemed as if Potter had no use for her help. Fine. He probably was to occupied with his battle against the Dark Lord anyway.

* * *

_third task of the Triwizard Tournament_

Sybill had felt an imminent shift in the balance of the conflict since she woke up that day. It left a heavy feeling in the air and more than once she had trouble breathing.

She watched Potter all day. Her effort in the last year to attune some of her crystal balls to the shades of death was now paying off. Today she could use those balls to circumvent the strong protections which had prohibited her from watching Potter or the Dark Lord from afar. Both sides had some seriously paranoid wards employed. But today she could easily watch the shades which followed them around. There were just too many of them for the protections to be able to cover them all. And she could use this temporary weakness in their protections to attune a ball to every major player on either side. Those attunements would be permament.

The success of her work filled her with glee. After all, Sybill had become a seer because she wanted to know what was going on.

And then it was time for the next step in the conflict. Sybill was one of the very few witnesses to the second rise of the Dark Lord.

She had seen Diggory die. She had seen Potter and the Dark Lord duel. The poor boy. But again there was nothing she could do. Maybe she could help him in the future, but now he needed the support of his family and friends. Sybill went to bed after she had seen the boy uncover the spy which had hidden among them this year.

* * *

_Umbridge's inspection of the divination class_

Sybill hadn't expected the inspection to be pleasant. In the last years all of the defense professors had been surrounded by the aura of death to some degree. An aura which announced their doom and always gave her a slight headache after longer exposure. But she wasn't prepared for what she felt when she saw Umbridge. The inspector was a cruel woman. She hardly bothered to hide that fact. She was already caught in the net from Sybill's prophecy, doomed to a fate of pain and death. Pain for herself and others, death for others but not herself, not soon at least. Sybill had never felt so repulsed as she was by that woman. It was nauseating how some of the shades were edging her on. Sybill couldn't repress a shiver. For the first time ever Sybill wished she could stop using her inner eye on command. This inspection wouldn't go well.

Sybill tried to avoid Umbridge as much as possible but had little luck doing so. When the woman asked her some questions she needed too long to process what she'd been asked to think of good answers. When she was asked for a prediction she couldn't just tell her the overwhelming impression she felt from her. Her try to salvage the situation ended up making things worse. As if they weren't already bad enough by the way how the inspector disturbed the atmosphere she had worked so hard to achieve. The shades, which followed her were much too restless. She needed to divert her attention from that woman if she wanted to regain her bearings. As it was the task proofed to be impossible with that creature hovering nearby. When the inspection was finally over Sybill felt in equal parts relief and dread.

* * *

Sybill never learned to ignore Umbridge's presence. It proofed to be a blessing in a way when she was finally dismissed from her post as it gave her the possibility to avoid the inspector again. She couldn't help but to resent her replacement. Centaurs could no more understand the intricacies of the human inner sight as the humans could the centaurs'. Long ago there had been attempts to teach each other, but those had proven fruitless. She couldn't believe that Dumbledore could think it to be a good idea to hire one now. Clearly she had underestimated the headmaster's foolishness.

* * *

A/N: The one spoken sentence is a quote from the book (PoA, chapter 11)

You can find the second prophecy in chapter 3 in the Author's notes (original from PoA, chapter 16)


	9. Chapter 8: A divergence of stories

How it could have been

* * *

_end of Harry's fifth year_

Finally Umbridge had left Hogwarts. But Trelawney couldn't rejoice. The trials of this year had left her deeply exhausted and the only wish she had left was for the conflict to be over – for all conflicts to be over. She didn't care anymore for any of her earlier ambitions; not for divination to be recognized again as important magical art, nor for Dumbledore to be humiliated. Right now Trelawney just wanted to be left in peace. She wanted to be able to leave the castle again without worries for her own safety. The whole war made her sick.

* * *

_Harry's sixth year_

In this year she did nothing beyond half-hearted attempts to convince the headmaster that wizard and witches were too unique in their magic to learn divination from a centaur or to give the nag tips about how to best teach humans. Neither of them seemed to understand that human and centaur magic just didn't compare. And neither of them were at all inclined to listen to her.

Only once was she pushed by Fate to interfere. Potter needed to be informed about how his rival was using the hidden room. He also needed to know one further detail on her job interview for the teaching position at Hogwarts. That took some careful editing. She wasn't suicidal after all and so didn't want it to be known that she in fact remembered the making of her prophecy. Aside from that one encounter the year just kept dragging on. The end of the war was nowhere in sight.

* * *

_battle of Hogwarts_

Finally, Trelawney felt the end of the conflict approach. Finally things were looking up and she allowed herself to feel a tiny spark of hope. In truth she had achieved much more than she could have hoped for in the last two years. Dumbledore's reputation was in ruins. She felt saddened by how many people had died. But with the end approaching she knew that more people had survived still. And since it was her who had caused the end of the first conflict to happen, she just couldn't feel responsible for the pain of the last three years. For the first time in a long while Trelawney wanted to be useful again. The crystal balls which she had attuned to the shades of death a long time ago would make excellent weapons if used right. At the very least she could use them to work around her magic's tendency to remain passive in conflicts. She set out to do some work. It had been too long.

* * *

_some years later_

Looking back Trelawney felt content. It was true, that most wizards and witches still didn't appreciate the magical art of divination. But most of those she taught the art to did. Change was slowly happening. Too slowly, magical Britain was left behind. But somebody else would have to fix that. It was enough that she had brought down the person who had insulted her and all seers with her.

Trelawney appreciated the peace and quiet of her middle-age. It had taken some years, but finally the centaur had given up and returned to the forest. Now she looked forward to courting their next Defense against the Dart Arts teacher.

* * *

But that's not how it happened. Something very different happened instead.

* * *

_end of Harry's fifth year_

Finally, Umbridge had left Hogwarts and Sybill felt still tired, too tired to rejoice. There was only one thing which kept her from giving up and that was the knowledge that she had survived. This year had been the most awful experience of her life and she'd survived. If she could life through this year of hell than she could life through anything. Right now she only wanted to sleep, preferable for a whole week. But after that she would resume her fight and nothing would be able to stop her. However long it took, she would see it through to the very end.

Any observer would have to look very closely to see the hint of steel in Sybill's eyes, but it was definitely there.

* * *

_summer holidays, Sybill's tower_

Sybill had neglected her duties for far too long. She'd taken the job to teach young witches and wizards how to use their inner eyes and never again wanted she to fail her students as she had last year. Now she had to decide how to best work with the centaur. She knew that the decision for him to stay on couldn't be changed anytime soon. She also knew that he could offer help with teaching some parts of divination even to humans, but was unsuited as teacher for most aspects of the art. The techniques centaurs and humans could use for utilising their inner sight were just too different.

She needed to come to a decision and she was using tarock cards to examine her options. She laid two cards before her – the moon and the fool – the night sky spoke in too foreign a language and the centaur was a fool to believe, that he could teach the language to humans. She laid out the seven of spades. She winced. He was a persistent fool. This did not bode well.

Sybill leaned back pondering. Just what compromise could she convince the centaur to take?

He had made his classroom stimulating. It hadn't had the best aura but still a good one. He could teach the students to open their inner eyes, but he couldn't give them the direction on how to understand what they sensed. Might it work to let him have the younger years? She then could teach the NEWT class the scrying techniques as usual. She'd have to help the students to find the divining technique they would want to use in their life. They just wouldn't have the time to try them all, which was suboptimal but could hardly be helped. That would also mean that non of her students would get an OWL in divination. Sybill hardly cared, but some of her students did. And it might mean trouble with the governors, but she should be able to pacify them, if she maintained her average NEWT results.

Could that plan work? Sybill laid more tarock cards.

* * *

_Sunday afternoon, Hogwarts library_

The trio sat at the table, which they often used in the library, because it was so secluded. Ron worked on a transfiguration essay, Harry read in a guide about Gringotts and Hermione researched the treaties between wizards and goblins. Astonishingly for all the time in which Binns taught about the goblins rebellions he never once discussed the treaties which ended them. Which of course meant, that Harry had no idea, how he had to treat the people, which controlled his money. At least he believed, that they controlled it. Harry sighed. Hermione looked at him with concern.

"Did you find something, Harry?"

Harry closed his books.

"No. There is no standard contract. The goblins give some guidelines for when a family wants to open a vault. But they negotiate an individual contract for each vault with each family. I'll probably have to ask them for a copy. Hopefully they are allowed to give me one.

"What about your research? Anything helpful?"

Hermione's enthusiasm about her research could be clearly heard in the tone of her response.

"Oh lots. Part of it I already knew, of course. But I never saw the whole picture. Did you know that only goblins employed by Gringotts may perform major blood rituals? They need those to find a heir to vaults whose last owners didn't specify the next one. 1332 the goblin bank administration fought a war with the government, because both wanted the right to just claim those vaults, but neither side could win that conflict against the resistance of the families who owned most of the vaults. That weren't just wizards, you know, but also other goblins, vampires, centaurs and some other creatures.

"Professor Binns made that rebellion sound as if it was fought about some insults. He also never mentioned that there were more than two sides, which made it kinda hard to figure out who fought with whom."

Harry vaguely remembered that there had indeed been a rebellion on which he found Hermione's notes particularly baffling. In the end he'd just learned the names of the involved goblins. Afterward he had felt very clever because that had been all the information which he had needed for the exam. Hermione continued speaking.

"Anyway, I'll just give you the list when I'm finished. There is something else, I wanted to talk about with you."

Hermione made a short pause to look in Harry's eyes.

"You're beginning to feel overwhelmed, because you have actually several different tasks now. One, you must learn the skills which a leader needs. Two, you must establish yourself as someone who can lead. Three, you must decide on the agenda which you want to promote. Four, you must bring about the moment, when you can actually step forward and assume leadership.

"With Dumbledore's plan that would probably be the moment when you kill Voldemort or when we plan the final battle. With Professor Snape's plan that should be when Voldemort wants to open talks with our side. Which he must, if the plan shall work at all.

"You know, that you can always come to Ron and me for brainstorming. Just because the stupid prophecy and your fame make you the obvious figurehead, doesn't mean that you have to come up with all the plans."

"Yeah mate," Ron chimed in. "Come to us and we tell you what to do. Now write a letter to Gringotts. The Potters have always been well-off but not rich. But I'm sure that lots of wizards donated some cool gifts to the Boy-Who-Lived. Hermione can tell you, how to be polite."

"Ron!"

* * *

_Sunday night, Gryffindor tower, boy's dormitory_

Harry had the most peculiar dreams. His scar hurt, but they were not any of his usual nightmarish visions. Instead he saw various fragmented scenes. And always they felt somehow off.

He felt as if his head had been wrapped in cloth and heard the sorting hat say, that he could be great in Slytherin and he rejoiced. He remembered sleeping in a cupboard and mused that it would be a good place to lay eggs. He ran for his life from giant spiders and thought that he should have brought his basilisk. Some more minions also might have helped. He followed an older boy and didn't know why. That boy might hurt him, when he was discovered and he couldn't understand why he felt no fear. He saw glorious green light. And red light, and yellow light, and blue light, and black light. That last one wasn't confusing at all. He heard hissing voices and he trusted them. He held a black diary and thought what a weakness it was to write in a hardly protected diary. He saw a phoenix burn and thought that was convenient, at least the blasted bird was weak right then.

And there were many more scenes. Harry Potter had a very restless night.

* * *

_Monday morning, girl's dormitory_

Ginny was chatting with Hermione.

"You know, you three try to be discreet, but by now it's quite obvious that you are planning something. Is it something I can help you with?"

Hermione just looked levelly at her.

"You have to talk with Harry about that."

* * *

_Monday night, Malfoy Manor_

Snape was called prematurely to report to the Dark Lord. Most weeks he saw him only once, but this week the call was not surprising. Luckily he wasn't doing anything sensitive when his mark suddenly burned.

Just like last Friday he was received in a private audience. Voldemort knew that if something important had happened Severus would have reported the event. So he didn't waste time asking questions but simply told Severus his new order.

"You are to teach Potter occlumency. It is of utmost importance that he learns the art as soon as possible."

At that statement Snape had to suppress all the thoughts which competed for attention in his head to concentrate on matters which were important right then.

"What explanation shall I give to Dumbledore for your summons?"

"You may tell him of my order. Tell him that I grew tired to being assaulted by the boy's feelings. And that I hope that the boy will learn to block them out. He already believes me insane. So it shouldn't matter what he thinks about that explanation," Voldemort answered in an amused voice.

"That is all for today. Return now."

Snape bowed and left. His face was blank but his thoughts were in turmoil. This audience had been very uncharacteristic.

* * *

_letter from Gringotts to Harry_

Dear heir of the house Potter,

Gringotts is sorry to say that at this time Gringotts can give you no further information but the reassurance that the monetary affairs of the house Potter are in capable hands.

You may at this time change the list of the approved contacts. You may not remove Hogwarts or your guardian from the list. Gringotts will continue to screen your letters and handle the urgent affairs.

You may charge the manager of the Potter assets with the handling of the holdings of your trust vault or you may hire your own manager. Your permission for your proxy to handle your affairs must be given by you in person in Gringotts.

You may block the access to your trust vault for everybody but yourself.

Every other affair awaits your assumption of the duties as the head of house.

This letter follows the specifications from the contract between house Potter and Gringotts. This is the letter which is to be sent if there is a sole heir of Potter who is between fifteen and twenty years old and asks for information on the contract by owl.

May your gold flow,

Gurgach

* * *

A/N: Adenoide: She's a seer. That's how. A seer sees your darkest secrets.

Moi: Believe me, I didn't consider Trelawney's point of view until very recently either.


End file.
